You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Neurological rarities
Coeliac disease presenting with chorea
  1. Stela Lefter1,
  2. Luke Corcoran2,
  3. Eimear McAuliffe2,
  4. Rahim Khan3,
  5. Louise Burke4,
  6. Michael Regan2,
  7. Marios Hadjivassiliou5
  1. 1 Neurology, Cork University Hospital Group, Cork, Ireland
  2. 2 Cork University Hospital Group, Cork, Ireland
  3. 3 Gastroenterology, Cork University Hospital Group, Cork, Ireland
  4. 4 Pathology, Cork University Hospital Group, Cork, Ireland
  5. 5 Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Stela Lefter, Neurology, Cork University Hospital Group, Cork, T12 H2FD, Ireland; stela_lefter{at}yahoo.com

Abstract

Chorea can be genetic or acquired, and often leads to a challenging diagnostic conundrum. In a significant proportion, there is no specific identifiable cause. Chorea is a rare but potentially reversible neurological manifestation of coeliac disease, usually presenting insidiously and often presumed to be associated with typical gastrointestinal symptoms. We report a patient with rapidly progressive generalised chorea, but without preceding gastrointestinal symptoms, who was subsequently diagnosed with coeliac disease. A gluten-free diet resulted in complete resolution of the chorea.

  • chorea
  • coeliac disease
  • neuroimmunology

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2019-002396

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors SL, MR and MH designed and conceptualised the study, analysed the data and drafted the manuscript for intellectual content. LC, EM, RK and LB had a major role in the data acquisition, analysis and interpretation. All the authors revised the manuscript, and read and approved the final version.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned. Externally peer-reviewed by Mirdhu Wickremaratchi, Sussex, UK, and Mayke Oosterloo, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

    • Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

    Other content recommended for you